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What's in Your Fermenter? 2017


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Just dropped my 1st ever Saison...

Over 50 brews in and thought I'd give the fruity, spicy, peppery, clove flavours a go.

Straight off Coopers website except I swapped in Mangrove Jack's French Saison Yeast.

 

1.7kg Australian Pale Ale

1.7kg Thomas Coopers Hefe Wheat

500g LDM

25g Saaz

10g Mangrove Jack's French Saison Yeast

 

Will be kegging.

 

Anyone got any tricks for the Saison; read a bit about fermentation stall? I've simply glad wrapped the FV to try and avoid any stall. Got the FV temp controlled at 20 degrees.

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Anyone got any tricks for the Saison; read a bit about fermentation stall? I've simply glad wrapped the FV to try and avoid any stall. Got the FV temp controlled at 20 degrees.

 

I have not read anything about saisons stalling nor have I experienced it.

 

How does glad wrapping help prevent a stall?

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1.7kg Australian Pale Ale

1.7kg Thomas Coopers Hefe Wheat

500g LDM

25g Saaz

I've brewed the DIY Saison recipe. Turned out terrific. I did use the Danstar Belle Saison yeast as advised though. Saison yeasts are typically very aggressive during fermentation & have high attenuation. Wyeast's 3724 Belgian Saison strain is the only one I'm aware of that claims stalling can happen.

 

Keep the temperature warm & it should make a terrific beer! cool

 

Cheers & good luck with the brew.

 

Lusty.

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I just dry hopped the American Amber Ale with 55g of Mosaic. Took a reading too which read 1.010 from 1.057. Although i know that the sample is only an idicator of how the beer will taste in the glass' date=' i dont feel at this stage that it is too sweet. It could probably do with a touch more bitterness, but i think its gonna be ok...... I hope its gonna be ok [img']crying[/img]

 

I took another hydro sample of this beer yesterday, and decided not to do the additional mini beer to add bitterness. I felt that although it could probably do with some more bitterness, i dont feel it is too sweet and ended up bottling it today. Thank you a bunch Lusty for all your advice, i really do appriciate it. Ill let you all know how it turns out in a couple of weeks.

 

Cheers!

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I have not read anything about saisons stalling nor have I experienced it.

How does glad wrapping help prevent a stall?

 

Can't remember exactly which website I read about the stalling; but after a few brewers did a series of experiments the brews that didn't stall were the ones that simply had a foil "lid". I didn't want to use foil so swapped in glad wrap...urban myth?

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Sounds like a load of crap to be honest. The fermenter lid type has no effect on whether the yeast shuts up shop or not. Temperature, too high an alcohol content, not enough oxygen at pitching time or not enough yeast pitched in the first place are the main reasons for stalling.

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I have a coopers euro lager fermenting away that I used MJ M42 yeast with and did a modest 5 min addition of 20g of amarillo, centennial and simcoe then another 20g of amarillo and simcoe at flameout with 60g of centennial also at flameout. I have dry hopped 30g of each when the OG hit 1.022 and will pull those out in 2 days and then when I cold crash I will add another 30g of each. I used BE3 and did a 5l boil with 600g of the BE3.

 

I let it steep for about 5 min then added some cold water and let sit for another 15 min. I didnt check the temp so hoping it is not to bitter...I guessed with Ians spreadsheet that the IBU would be 43 or 45...but I am unsure if that is right. It smells good the hydrometer sample at 1.022 had a back of the tongue bitterness that was ok. Similar to other bitter beers. Oh well we will see how it goes.

 

Cheers,

Norris

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Well whatever it is I'm sure it will turn out a tasty drop! cool

 

Mate, I hope so. My bank account was crying when I decided to put this down....fingers crossed. If it turns out good I will call it the mortgage beer. Because you might need one trying to buy everything for it.

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Sounds like a load of crap to be honest. The fermenter lid type has no effect on whether the yeast shuts up shop or not. Temperature' date=' too high an alcohol content, not enough oxygen at pitching time or not enough yeast pitched in the first place are the main reasons for stalling.[/quote']

 

Seems I had no dramas with fermenting out...O.G 1067 --> F.G 1008

 

Bumped the controlled temp up to 22 degrees to see it out.

 

Looks like its gonna be a ("short") session ale to me?! wink

 

I didn't read much into the stall, won't waste my time trying to find the article again though! cool

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Unfortunately I have nothing fermenting at the moment. Bottled a single hop mosaic pale ale last week and now will be working all this weekend, moving house the following weekend and then working again the weekend after.

Hopefully after all that I can get some serious brewing done. But then again the Gold Coast Craft Beer Festival is on Saturday 4th November.

Stocks will be getting pretty low by then. Might have to actually buy some from the bottleshop. Bugger!

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First brew went well and was a really good beer to drink :D

 

I now have a 40 pint brew in a fermenting bucket at the mo

 

It's a Festival Ale "Father Hooks Best Bitter".

Added the hops to it and it should be ready to syphon off for next stage of brewing at weekend...

how the feck do I syphon it outta the bucket? All I have is a length of flexi plastic hose and a wee filter thingy bag thing???

I am thinking of moving the brew into two Coopers FV's (20 pints in each) and then bottling off from them when brew is done.

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It looks like you're referring to siphoning off the beer into another fermenter(s) to let it finish up in there and then bottle it? If so, don't bother, it's a total waste of time and only invites the invitation to oxidise and possibly infect the beer. Just leave it where it is until it finishes fermenting, and bottle from that bucket.

 

But to siphon with only a length of hose you pretty much have to stick one end in the beer, suck on the other end of it to get the flow going, and then make sure the receiving container is kept below the one you're draining from.

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It looks like you're referring to siphoning off the beer into another fermenter(s) to let it finish up in there and then bottle it? If so' date=' don't bother, it's a total waste of time and only invites the invitation to oxidise and possibly infect the beer. Just leave it where it is until it finishes fermenting, and bottle from that bucket.

 

But to siphon with only a length of hose you pretty much have to stick one end in the beer, suck on the other end of it to get the flow going, and then make sure the receiving container is kept below the one you're draining from.[/quote']

 

Thanks Otto, was thinking about it overnight and concluded the same; will leave it to finish off there and then syphon / bottle off.

It was a kit I was given by a mate which came with a 25L fermenting bucket and as I only had my wee Coopers FV at the time, I used the bucket. Seems to be coming along fine in there...

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It looks like you're referring to siphoning off the beer into another fermenter(s) to let it finish up in there and then bottle it? If so' date=' don't bother, it's a total waste of time and only invites the invitation to oxidise and possibly infect the beer. Just leave it where it is until it finishes fermenting, and bottle from that bucket.

 

But to siphon with only a length of hose you pretty much have to stick one end in the beer, suck on the other end of it to get the flow going, and then make sure the receiving container is kept below the one you're draining from.[/quote']

 

Thanks Otto, was thinking about it overnight and concluded the same; will leave it to finish off there and then syphon / bottle off.

It was a kit I was given by a mate which came with a 25L fermenting bucket and as I only had my wee Coopers FV at the time, I used the bucket. Seems to be coming along fine in there...

 

Well, I syphoned it out into two Coopers FV's and then bottled off from them... find using the Coopers FV's really easy to bottle from.

I now have 28 740ml bottles of Father Hooks' Best Bitter conditioning biggrin

 

Next up will be a Young's American IPA... 6.5% abv... biggrin

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Recieved my delivery from the Coopers Store Friday after using the discount code and taking advantage of the free shipping. Got the DIY Brew Kit with the big FV, glad I did this.

 

The support and service from the store was outstanding! received my delivery in 3 days.

 

So I put down my 3rd brew yesterday, Fruit Salad Ale as per the recipe instructions.

First time using hop pellets and LDM which was an interesting experience all round and definatley took some learings from it. But I guess that's what I am enjoying about my new favorite hobby.

Even had a crack at rehydrating the yeast.

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I currently have two beers in fermenters atm. My Rakau/CCA yeast Pale Ale is currently cold conditioning in my brew fridge & will likely see the inside of a keg this coming Thursday. I've been dying to brew with Rakau for sometime now, so am really looking forward to this one.

 

The second is a kit based Pale Ale using El Dorado, Mosaic, Centennial & some MJ's Strong Ale yeast I harvested from a previous batch. It took off fermenting fairly quickly (under 10 hours from pitching) & is now very close to the end of primary ferment needing only a few more points to reach expected FG. This will sit at ambient temperatures until Thursday when I will then begin cold crashing it in readiness for kegging sometime the following week.

 

This two beer rotation cycle will be fairly constant for sometime now that the warmer weather has arrived.

 

Well one must keep up with demand! (mainly mine!) biggrinwink

 

Cheers & good brewing,

 

Lusty.

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I have a Centennial/Cascade pale ale in the brew fridge at the moment, it was pitched on Saturday when I was meant to be brewing my pilsner but didn't lol. It got up and running krausen wise yesterday (did the pils brew yesterday instead).

 

OG for this batch was 1.0477 if I remember correctly, which was below the predicted by 3 points. Still managed 25L into the FV for a total efficiency of 70%, unusually low for me. Sometimes I don't hit the nominal 75%, but it's usually 0.5-1% low or something, not 5%, however my mash efficiency was down also. I didn't do a 72C rest or a mash out on this batch because I forgot the false bottom and have no way to suspend the bag. Remembered it for yesterday's brew and was back to normal - 89.2% mash efficiency. I don't know for sure but it seems skipping those higher temp steps was of some detriment, and the wort was harder to squeeze out of the grains at mash temps.

 

Anyway, it will be kegged in a couple of weeks, with the few litres surplus going into the 10L keg with the few litres of red ale currently sitting in it.

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

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This pale ale batch is 3 days in and down to around 1.029/30 SG, so I've raised the temp on the controller to 21 and will allow it to rise by itself inside the fridge. The weather is quite cool here this week (low 20s) so it probably won't rise all that fast. The estimated FG is 1.0132, so only about 16/17 points to go, which should be done in the next couple of days, and should be dropping the temp for a week long cold crash next Monday.

 

Cheers

 

Kelsey

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I have a maris otter/citra SMaSH fermenting at 19 degrees. Batch size is 22L which will fill my keg and have some left over to put in a few bottles and give to a mate.

I wanted a simple beer to have on warmer days. It is my first time using maris otter and citra so hopefully it is nice!!

 

Youngie

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Hey Kelsey, are you dry hopping this Centennial/Cascade pale ale?

 

I tried something different with this last dry hop (Galaxy Pacific Ale). I waited until fermentation was completely finished, dry hopped for 3 days and then whipped out the bag before CC. Usually I dry hop when it has a few points to go and leave the bag in there (or commando) for the cold crash.

 

Hoping for more aroma and no dry hop grassiness/vegetable aromas. Will be interesting to compare this batch to previous ones

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